Tuesday, December 04, 2018

Why do some IVF doctors still transfer more than one embryo?

Everyone
agrees that transferring a single embryo is best for IVF patients. This is
called an Elective Single Embryo Transfer, and the best clinical only transfer one,
top quality blastocyst, because singleton pregnancies have a much better
obstetric outcome and are safer for both mother and baby.

After all, the
purpose of IVF is not just to get pregnant - it's to have a healthy baby !

Even with
twins, the risk of premature delivery is increased, with all the consequences
of low birth weight and mental retardation this can cause. It might seem tempting
to have twins because this gives you an “instant complete family at one shot” ,
but this is not in your best interests.

This is why
it worries me why a lot of IVF doctors
will talk about doing Single Embryo Transfers when giving lectures at
conferences, but in real life they will actually push their patients into
transferring two embryos !

I think this
just reflects the fact that they're not very confident about their IVF success
rates.

Thus, if
your doctor tells you to transfer two embryos, this is a red flag, which
suggests he may not be very good. What he seems to want to do is to maximize
his clinic's success rates, rather than to maximize your chance of having a
healthy baby- and this is not in your best interests, because you then run the
risk of being saddled with handicapped babies for the rest of your life !